Vanderbilt graduate students protest new apartments, as Nashville housing prices continue to rise

Graduate student workers are rallying at Vanderbilt University Wednesday to protest unaffordable housing.

The university recently announced how much rent will cost at The Broadview at Vanderbilt, a future apartment building for graduate and professional students. But a graduate student group says even the cheapest units would take up about half of grad workers’ monthly stipends.

Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United and the Organization of Black Graduate and Professional Students are organizing Wednesday’s demonstration.

Pricing for @VanderbiltU's new grad housing is out. The CHEAPEST option, at a whopping 267 sq ft, comes in at $1377, or ~50% of a Vandy grad stipend.

Affordable housing is defined as costing <30% of your income.

You pay us! You know how much money we (don't) have! pic.twitter.com/nRDemVFjOz

— Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United (VGWU) (@VandyGradUnion) October 12, 2022

Mike Reynolds is a fourth-year graduate student in Vanderbilt’s physics department. His tuition is covered, but he earns less than $34,000 a year through his university stipend. He says that pay made it really difficult to find a place he could afford to live this year.

“When housing is this unaffordable, and you’re not making a livable wage, that kind of calls into question, like, ‘Why do I have this bachelor’s degree, and you know, going through all this, if I can’t even afford to live?’”

The university says that the new apartments are still well below the market rate for the area and offer amenities. The apartments are scheduled to open in fall 2023. In a statement, Vanderbilt says, “As with market housing developments, the project must be financially self-sustaining.” 

But Reynolds says that with a nearly $11 billion endowment, the university can afford to pay them more. He’s active with the group Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United, which plans to hold a separate rally for higher wages next week.

Vanderbilt students are far from alone in their housing struggles. The Nashville Scene reports more than 1,000 students at TSU have been living in hotel rooms this semester, since there’s not enough space on campus to accommodate them all.

And overall, Nashville rents have increased dramatically. According to data from ApartmentList.com, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Nashville has increased from about $1,000 in 2017 to more than $1,300 this year.